CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The next step of the massive project to improve Cleveland's Inner Belt system -- repaving and ramp work on the "central interchange" area on westbound Interstate 90 -- should get an infusion of money next week.

The state advisory council that approves funding for major transportation projects is scheduled to vote then on its priorities for Ohio's transportation network.

Included on a draft list of proposed expenditures is $24.5 million for design work on the third chapter of the Inner Belt overhaul, focusing on Interstate 77 in the area north of Interstate 490, and along Interstate 90 in the area between E. 9th and E. 22nd Streets. Those freeway sections are to be reconstructed with new pavement, bridges and ramps to meet current design standards and traffic demands.

Building new westbound and eastbound bridges are the Inner Belt project's first two stages. The westbound bridge is scheduled to open by Thanksgiving, with the existing bridge demolished over the winter and construction on the eastbound bridge planned to begin next spring.

The Transportation Review Advisory Council of the Ohio Department of Transportation is expected to approve design funding for the Inner Belt's "contract group three" -- the central interchange -- when it meets next Thursday. ODOT expects to select a design firm for the project this winter.

Don't look for construction on the interchange to start once the eastbound bridge is done in three years, though. It will be nine years after that, according to the advisory council's web site. It shows construction on the central interchange getting underway in 2025 -- eight years later than the 2017 start date on ODOT's on-line information showing Inner Belt timelines.

"All of the construction time frames you see there would be in an ideal world," Inner Belt spokeswoman Jocelyn Clemings said, "if ODOT had a bucket of cash sitting around to fund all these projects.

"We don't have the money until 2025 to do any construction work" on the interchange, she said.

Work on the eastbound bridge is on the verge of launching, however, with ODOT's decision last week on a prime contractor. The state said Friday that Pittsburgh-based Trumbull Corp., teamed with Great Lakes Construction Co. and The Ruhlin Co., and designer URS Corp., all of Cleveland, submitted an apparent winning bid of just under $273 million. It calls for completing the eastbound bridge in September 2016.

The contract award must be reviewed by ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration before it is finalized.

The Trumbull-led team and two other bidders on the project all came in lower than ODOT's estimated cost of $330 million to tear down the 1950s-era existing bridge and build the new eastbound structure.

"Contractors are hungry to do work," Clemings said. "It's a good time to build a bridge."

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